jonetta rose barras: AG Karl Racine wants a Civil Rights Division

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser isn’t the only elected official who has been expanding government territory. Attorney General Karl Racine hasn’t been anyone’s slouch.

Since being sworn in as the city’s top lawyer in 2015, he has, among other things, created an Office of Consumer Protection; established a Housing and Community Justice program (now part of the Public Advocacy Division) to handle wage theft, tenants’ rights complaints and preservation of affordable housing; and beefed up the Public Safety Division to include restorative justice and victims’ services programs. He also oversees the violence-prevention program known as CURE the Streets.

Those and other changes have resulted in the budget for the AG’s office increasing from $83.1 million in 2017 to $108 million in fiscal year 2019. According to 2020 budget documents, the AG “supervises the legal work of about 304.5 attorneys and 366 administrative /professional staff.” It may be one of the largest law firms — if not the largest —  in the nation’s capital.

An OAG spokesperson asserted in an email to me hours after this article appeared that the agency has also saved District residents a considerable amount of money. From 2015 to 2018, for example, the OAG reports more than “$2.5 billion of savings and benefits to the District and relief for harmed consumers as a result of OAG’s legal actions.” That total includes more than “$139 million in settlements and judgements; $2.7 million from neglectful building owners and $403 million [in] tax revenues preserved and bond program fees collected.”  

Racine has decided to add to his office’s vast portfolio; he has proposed creating a Civil Rights Division, in part by securing certain authority through an amendment to the city’s Human Rights Act. Elizabeth Wilkins, senior counsel for policy in the OAG, told me earlier this week that the creation of such a division would allow the agency to “take on civil rights cases where we think we could make an impact with a relatively small investment and really good litigators.”

While Bowser seems to have been bloating the executive branch without any logical justification, Racine has been attempting to shape an independent office that was established by amending the Home Rule Charter without sufficient forethought about structural depth and breadth. The most salient discussion that occurred prior to the first election of the AG was around how to protect mayoral prerogatives — not how to ensure capacity while allowing for growth of the OAG, an office critical to the protection of residents and the defense of the government. Consequently, residents and government observers, myself included, have watched Racine’s piecemeal organizational development.

Consider the fact that while the OAG is supposed to be an independent operation, after four years its budget request is still made through the mayor rather than going directly to the council. That circuitous approach could adversely affect the OAG’s effectiveness and its priorities. For fiscal year 2020, Racine asked for an additional $5 million. Bowser proposed only $409,000. The AG’s proposed Civil Rights Division could cost $500,000.

Racine has “repeatedly expressed to the council and the Executive Office of the Mayor his strong desire to develop a new [budget] process,” an agency spokesperson told me. “We look forward to continuing those conversations and determining an appropriate solution.”

Some people have raised concerns about whether a Civil Rights Division would duplicate the work of the Office of Human Rights (OHR), part of the executive branch. Monica Palacio, OHR’s executive director, said she was aware of such reactions. In an email to me, she expressed confidence that working together with Racine “we will continue to keep the best interest of District residents, workers and visitors as this highest priority in our Civil Rights enforcement work in the District.”

That, my friends, is a subtle admission of a territorial fight underway.

The proposal was referred to the council’s Committee on Government Operations, which is chaired by Ward 4 representative Brandon Todd, generally known as a strong mayoral ally. His spokesperson disputed the characterization by some civil rights advocates that the council member opposes the change, noting that Todd has been “facilitating” the conversation between the two agencies. He also “is expected to meet with the attorney general in two weeks.”

The Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety was supposed to provide comments on the proposal. Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen, who chairs that committee, could not be reached for comment.

Is the Civil Rights Division proposal simply part of Racine’s belt-notching ?

Racine told The Washington Post that he is not interested in a third term as AG. Political observers expect him to run for mayor or seek a high-level national position. The latter is not impossible. After all, he previously worked as associate White House counsel to President Bill Clinton. Currently, Racine is vice president of the National Association of Attorneys General and co-chair of the Democratic Association of Attorneys General. He has endorsed the Democratic presidential bid of Sen. Kamala Harris, who is also a friend (and a former colleague when she was California’s attorney general).

Politics aside, several people in the legal community, including Shelley Broderick, former dean of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, are voicing strong support for establishing the civil rights section. “The Office of Human Rights does a fabulous job in administrative mediation. This is not to take anything away from their important work, but DC needs more,” she told me. “Hate crimes are up 62 percent in DC.”

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, bias or hate crimes have increased significantly in several categories, including ethnicity/national origin (up from 40 cases in 2017 to 49 in 2018), sexual orientation (up from 55 cases in 2017 to 60 in 2018) and gender identity (13 cases in 2017 to 34 in 2018). “Some of these cases need aggressive prosecution by the Office of the Attorney General, which has a stake in this community and truly represents our residents,” added Broderick.

“The civil rights needs of our residents are staggering,” said Wilkins, whose father, Roger Wilkins, was a leader in the civil rights movement.

If anyone thinks that the new Civil Rights Division would focus heavily with issues related to use of excessive force by police or stop-and-frisk concerns, think again. Wilkins didn’t rule out the agency looking at those problems, but she made clear it would mostly involve “civil litigation of private actors.” She cited as an example a recent case involving a transgender woman who was a customer at Cuba Libre restaurant. The woman was prevented from using the restroom of her choice.

Wilkins said that, since taking office in 2015, Racine and his staff have grappled with the question of “what it means to protect residents” while keeping pace with other attorneys general; New York, California and Massachusetts are among states that have civil rights divisions.

While I am no fan of huge, wasteful government bureaucracies, it seems to me the OAG is rather late in proposing a Civil Rights Division. The council should approve the request.

Equally important, this is a perfect time for the council and the mayor to jointly entertain innovative re-engineering ideas. Currently, the DC government is a massive, sluggish and costly thing. Adding onto it, as the mayor, the council and now the AG have been doing, has exacerbated the problem. A new, more creative 21st-century structure, including consolidation of agencies and offices and the simultaneous deployment of more technology, could result in a far superior yet less costly service delivery system.

This column has been updated to correct an error that identified Roger Wilkins as Elizabeth Wilkins’ uncle; he is her father. Roy Wilkins is her uncle. Additionally, the Office of the Attorney General provided financial information that indicated the amount of funds generated by the agency, which a spokesperson said should be considered in conjunction with its spending.

---

jonetta rose barras is a DC-based freelance writer and host of The Barras Report television show. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.